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Arts Education Teacher Training: a Process Document Arts Education Teacher Training: A Process Document Based on ‘Kali-Kalisu’: A Pioneering Project of India Foundation for the Arts and Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore Compiled by Anupama Prakash, Sanjay Iyer and Aruna Krishnamurthy, Programme Executives, with help from C. Suresh Kumar, India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore 2011 www.indiaifa.org https://sites.google.com/site/kalikalisu/ 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS • PREFACE • INTRODUCTION • OBJECTIVES • KEY COMPONENTS • METHODOLOGY • OUTCOMES • SUSTAINABILITY • FUTURE DIRECTIONS: PHASE IV • BEST PRACTICES FOR THE PROJECT 2 PREFACE This Kali-Kalisu Process Document is best viewed as a reflective narrative that documents the aims, methods, processes, and experiences of the Kali-Kalisu initiative in Karnataka, undertaken by the Goethe Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan and India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), Bangalore. Kali-Kalisu emerged organically out of a successful coalition between a grant making arts organisation that was committed to the cause of arts education, local art organisations that had a heightened interest and expertise in the field, and state educational institutions that had a positive outlook on the project. We believe that the project has pioneered an innovative approach to integrating the arts within the classroom. We hope that the following document will serve as a general guideline for others committed to the cause of a holistic approach to arts education. IFA will be happy to work in a consultative capacity to enable such projects elsewhere. INTRODUCTION IFA’s Arts Education programme has shaped itself in response to perceived gaps and missteps in the role of the arts within educational institutions across India. The programme departs from the conventional idea of the arts as a secondary and subservient discipline within the curriculum (as useful hobbies or leisure activities), and aims to bridge the goals of knowledge gathering, aesthetic education and civic engagement through a holistic approach to arts-integrated learning. IFA seeks a convergence between the disparate approaches of arts-in-education and education-in-the-arts, and to institute a process-oriented—interactive, inclusive, self-exploratory—engagement with the arts in lieu of the typical product-oriented approach. Art becomes the language through which students can express all aspects of the self—aesthetic, cognitive and ethical/social. Kali-Kalisu emerged out a comprehensive review of the Arts Education (AE) programme conducted in 2008. After ten years of grant making, IFA called upon expert reviewers to articulate a narrower but more robust and focused version of its arts education programme that would define the next five years of the programme. Based on the recommendations of the panel, IFA’s AE programme reconfigured itself to play the role of a facilitator bringing together multiple stakeholders to promote the cause of arts education. The school teacher was identified as the most appropriate and enduring vehicle for the realisation of IFA’s vision for arts education. Training school teachers to employ arts methodologies in the classroom and instituting arts education within in-service teacher training programmes was seen as the best way forward. The teachers selected for training hailed from multiple disciplines, and from geographically and culturally diverse school districts in Karnataka. At the heart of Kali-Kalisu is the teacher training workshop that creatively brought together a variety of art forms, such as music, dance, theatre, the visual arts and puppetry, and aimed at reaching a wide range of districts in the state. “Kali-Kalisu” translates as “learn and teach” in Kannada, and is intended to underscore that the arts can transform learning and teaching into a joyous experience. Teachers from primary and high school levels are exposed to the best of the arts by facilitators who are themselves artists and educators. Kali-Kalisu has drawn on the resources of some of Karnataka’s most vibrant arts institutions—Ananya Cultural Academy, Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Ninasam, Gombe Mane (Puppet House) and Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi (BGVS). In the 3 later years the list of artist-facilitators grew considerably, based on the self-identified needs of the teachers. OBJECTIVES OF KALI-KALISU: To offer arts education training to state school teachers based on the following goals: Enrich the schooling experience for both teachers and students. Ignite a life-long quest for learning amongst teachers. Emphasise an interdisciplinary approach to arts education—bringing together multiple art forms and practices. Stress a process-oriented approach to arts education rather than the usual curriculum/text based approach. Ensure a sustainable, long-term approach to the work of arts education. Offer practical and concrete teacher training guidelines for IFA partners or service seekers to implement concrete arts education-based teacher training. Enrich classroom experience Create innovative Awaken spirit of arts-integrated lifelong learning pedagogies and discovery Bring togetherAwaken localspirit artists and schoolof lifelong communities learning and discovery 4 KEY COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT Training Emphasises learning as a participatory process with the teacher as a facilitator for learning. Provides opportunities for multiple intelligences to come alive, emphasising the importance of team work and peer learning. Provides opportunities to develop pedagogical capacity through skills in drama, puppetry, visual arts, music, dance, story-telling and other art forms. Arts Holistic understanding of the arts in their multiplicity, while appreciating the uniqueness of each particular form. The arts seen as enhancing perception and cognition to negotiate one’s world. Pedagogy Infusion of the arts in every stage of the teaching/learning process. Participatory and non-didactic explorations. Reflective evaluation replaces competitive evaluation. Emphasis on thought process and not on rote memorisation. Artists bring in: 1. Knowledge of art forms 2. Pedagogical tools 3. Aesthetic appreciation Teachers bring in: 1. Classroom realities 2. Social context for the arts 3. Challenging artists to think beyond their practice 5 METHODOLOGY The project unfolded over a period of three years and had three discrete segments to it. The core of the project—teacher training through three phases—was preceded by a planning phase. 1. Planning Phase: The planning phase of Kali-Kalisu focused on building two key constituencies of Kali-Kalisu—artist facilitators and teachers. a. Artist Facilitators: IFA set up a conversation between five leading artist practitioners in order to arrive at a work plan for the training. The artist practitioners were selected on the following basis: • Their knowledge and experience of working with teachers and students within state schools. • Familiarity with IFA’s vision and approach to Arts Education as past grantees of the programme. • Willingness to work with teachers of different age groups and gender and sensitivity to teachers’ issues • Capability to situate a particular art form within an educational context • Willingness to engage with multiple art forms and capability of a holistic framing of particular art forms • Awareness of issues affecting quality education • Capacity and keenness to transmit the knowledge about art forms into classroom practice The artist practitioners were brought together to discuss and share their past work and experiences with arts education initiatives, and to give Kali-Kalisu an interdisciplinary shape through conversations between the art forms in which each specialised. After the initial discussions, the five groups continued to collaborate with each other over a period of six weeks, and created a work plan for their workshops that together framed the curriculum for the first phase of Kali-Kalisu. b. Teacher Trainees: With the curriculum in place, the next order of business was the selection of teachers who would undergo training. One important challenge of Kali-Kalisu was gaining access to the state teachers on which the project was centered. Involving the state teacher meant direct engagement with the state Department of Education, often through personal and extra-official affiliations, and maintaining constant contact with officials and functionaries who were often on temporary postings. Securing the consent of the state department to access state teachers and to endorse Kali-Kalisu as part of their recommended in-service teacher training involved a tremendous amount of personal investment and lobbying on the part of IFA’s programme executive(s). The success of the project hinged on this component. General guidelines while selecting teacher trainees: • In-service teachers within the state educational system • Teachers from multiple disciplines, and not just art/craft/theatre teachers 6 • Teachers from geographically and culturally diverse school districts • Good composite group with a gender and age balance • A balance of teachers of different rank and grades • Openness to exploring any artistic form or practice • Ability to share experiences, provide feedback, pool ideas, generate insights and analysis. c. The planning phase also involved appointing an evaluator who was present from the start of the project through the end of the first year, and gave important feedback about process and outcomes for shaping the next phases. The evaluator was briefed thoroughly about the purpose and method of training. Details of participating
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